Glenna Duram (right) was convicted last week of murdering her husband, Martin Duram (left), in May 2015. Courtesy photo.

By Judy Reed

An Ensley Township woman was sentenced to life in prison earlier this week for the murder of her husband.

Glenna Duram, 49, was sentenced on Monday, August 28, in Newaygo County Circuit Court to life in prison without parole, for the May 2015 shooting of her husband, Martin Duram, 45. She was convicted last month of first-degree murder and a felony firearms charge.

“We would just like to say we are glad that she will never get out of prison and we are hoping that our family is now able to move on,” said Christina Keller, Marty Duram’s ex-wife, on behalf of their children and herself. “We want to remember Marty, not fight for him anymore.”

According to the original police report, firefighters responded to a garage fire on 128th Street, near Balsam, on Wednesday, May 13, 2015. A neighbor reportedly asked firefighters to check on some neighbors, and when they did, they found a man and a woman inside the home, and apparently deceased.

Troopers from the Michigan State Police Hart Post responded to the scene, and after making the scene safe, determined that the woman, Glenna Duram, was seriously injured, but still breathing. She had two gunshot wounds to the head. Martin Duram reportedly had been shot five times. Glenna was transported to the hospital.

Duram reportedly shot her husband and then herself. She had left several suicide letters to her own children and ex-husband saying she was sorry, though she never admitted to killing Marty.

Glenna had reportedly hidden from her husband that they were losing their home, and it was going up for auction. When he confronted her about it, she denied it, but papers strewn around the scene confirmed it.

In an odd twist to the case, the African grey parrot that was the Duram’s pet ended up with Keller after the murder, and began to repeat a conversation he had heard—complete with expletives—that ended with Marty yelling at his wife not to shoot.

It had been a year since Duram’s murder, with no arrest, when a family member alerted a television reporter about the bird. “Bud helped us get attention for Marty’s murder and I believe it put pressure on the prosecutor to make the arrest with all the media pressure,” remarked Keller.